Shock Video: We Talk to James DeMonaco & the Cast of The Purge: Anarchy

Last year, Universal Pictures released James DeMonaco’s The Purge, produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions, a low-budget thriller taking place in an America where all crime is legal for 12 hours a year. The movie showed how the Purge affected a security expert played by Ethan Hawke, who was trapped in his home with his family.

On July 18th, DeMonaco expands upon the ideas from the hit movie with The Purge: Anarchy, which shows more of the world during the annual Purge, this time through the eyes of a group of people from different backgrounds trying to survive. First, there’s Leo, played by Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), a police sergeant who is out the night of the Purge to get revenge. Carmen Ejogo (Alex Cross) plays Eva Sanchez, a single mother who is forced outside with her daughter by militaristic home invaders. Lastly, there’s Shane and Liz (Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez), a couple who get caught outside just as the Purge starts and their car gets a flat tire. The question is whether they can work together to survive or whether some of them have ulterior motives.

The sequel’s most enigmatic new character is one named Carmelo, played by Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire), a revolutionary who has formed a group to fight back against the annual Purge and those who abuse it to take advantage of the poor.

ShockTillYouDrop.com visited the Purge Breakout Experience during its weekend stay in New York’s Coney Island a couple weeks back, and we had a chance to talk with DeMonaco, Grillo, Ejogo and Williams inside a couple of the rooms. In our short time, we spoke about whether DeMonaco had ideas on how to explore the larger environment in a sequel, and talked to the actors about some of the ideas in the movie and what appealed to the actors about doing it.

You can watch the video interviews in the player below.

The Purge: Anarchy is unleashed nationwide (for more than 12 hours) on Friday, July 18th. Look for more interviews in the next week right here on ShockTillYouDrop.com.